Kansas State is set to turn to Dillon Duff at quarterback for Saturday’s trip to Colorado, and the sophomore is about to get his first college start and first collegiate appearance at the same time.
ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported Saturday morning, citing sources, that Duff will make his first career start. The Wildcats face the Buffaloes at Folsom Field in Boulder, Colorado, on Saturday, Oct. 31, at 1 p.m.
CT. The game will be televised on TNT.
If Duff does take the field, he’ll be the third different Kansas State starting quarterback in as many weeks. Avery Johnson and Jacob Knuth were both ruled out before the Big 12 matchup.
Duff’s path to this moment has been anything but straightforward. His health has been part of the conversation, too.
Earlier this week, Collin Klein was asked whether Duff would be in line to start if Johnson or Knuth couldn’t play. Klein said Duff’s availability for Kansas State’s Oct. 24 game at Arizona State was uncertain until the middle of that week.
Duff also didn’t dress for games early in the season because of a preseason injury, and he was only recently taken off the team’s weekly availability reports.
Even without any college snaps, Klein kept Duff in the picture throughout the preseason. The Kansas State coach never really let his name disappear when asked about the quarterback depth chart, even though he never publicly declared a backup winner.
Duff was unavailable in Week 1, when Blake Barnett was the first quarterback off the bench once the Wildcats had the game under control. From there, quarterback health has shaped Klein’s choices all season.
"He's worked incredibly hard," Klein said on Aug. 10. "Very, very efficient throwing the football and has made really good decisions and protects the ball at a very good clip."
Duff’s last game action came with a championship attached. He didn’t play a snap last year, but in 2024 he helped De Smet High School in St.
Louis win a state title in his most recent appearance. That season, the three-star quarterback completed 64.4% of his passes for 2,741 yards, 26 touchdowns and six interceptions, while also running for 666 yards and nine touchdowns.
He had three games with at least 111 rushing yards. According to 247Sports, he was the No. 68 quarterback in the 2025 class and a three-star prospect out of high school.
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Once the extra period arrived, though, the offense could not finish the job. Kansas State came up empty in overtime, and Colorado made the most of its chance to escape with a 27-24 win, turning a winnable Big 12 road game into one that will linger for the Wildcats because of how close it was to being theirs. [Read more 🡒]